Describing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's accusations regarding India's involvement in the killing of a Khalistani terrorist as "extremely serious," a high-ranking US official has expressed Washington's support for Ottawa's efforts to investigate the matter and has encouraged New Delhi to cooperate.
US National Security Council (NSC) Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby stated, "I'm going to protect diplomatic conversations, and I'll leave it at that. Certainly, the President is mindful of these serious allegations, and they are very serious. And we support Canada's efforts to investigate this."
"We believe a fully transparent comprehensive investigation is the right approach so that we can all know exactly what happened, and of course, we encourage India to cooperate with that," Kirby said in an interview with CNN.
Kirby was responding to a question regarding Trudeau's allegations of the involvement of "agents of the Indian government" in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, 45, the chief of the banned Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF).
Najjar was one of India's most-wanted terrorists, with a bounty of Rs 10 lakh on his head. He was shot dead by two unidentified gunmen outside a gurdwara in Surrey, in the western Canadian province of British Columbia, on June 18.
Kirby was asked about Trudeau discussing the matter privately with President Joe Biden before going public and what information the Canadian leader shared with the US President about the matter.
"I'm going to be careful about what I say here to preserve the sanctity of this investigation and leave it for Canada to talk about the underpinning information, what more they're trying to learn. We want to respect that process, and it's their investigation," Kirby added.
When further questioned about the potential repercussions of the allegations, Kirby stated, "Let's not get ahead of where we are. There's an active investigation. We think it needs to be fully transparent, and comprehensive. We know that Canadians will work to that end."
"Again, we urge India to cooperate with that investigation so that the facts can take investigators where they go. And then once we have all the facts and we have conclusions that we can draw from that, then we can start to look at recommendations or behaviours you might want to pursue."
In an interview with CBS News, Kirby stated, "These allegations are serious, and we know that the Canadians are investigating it. We certainly don't want to get ahead of that investigation."
"We urge India to cooperate in that investigation as well. This is the kind of attack here that obviously we all want to know is handled in a transparent, thorough way. And that the Canadian people can get answers to this. So we're going to stay in touch with our partners, both countries, and again we want to see the investigation be able to proceed unhindered and let the facts take it where it may," Kirby added.
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